the camera is on, the camera is off, look this looks interesting !!!

walking through some streets, I get to see a nice bench, hookers (it was 3:45 in the afternoon)and this...

So, walking through the streets of Berlin I was looking for a social campaign but wasn’t able to find one. 

Suddenly I found one about drinking responsibly but someone else had already talked about that one. Curioulsy, a few days later, I find myself with this one and at first it did not seem like a social/political campaign.

Basically, it is a political statement and was the winner for a political campaign competition at respect.de.

Over the past few years there has been strong discussions about how much can the state control its people (official sources). This includes cameras in public spaces and first degree internet inspection. You might say, there is no problem with that, that will make the city more secure and will control the content for the young ones on the web. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE ! the cameras on streets and parks, I would agree with that one, although it would demand a big investment and nobody needs privacy on public spaces. Now, the problem is with the web, they would be able to monitor that digital movements of a person, and if they are allowed to do it, who keeps people safe from hackers who would gain access to the private information of people and use for personal purposes. We already have those problems around the world and to allow this would be just making things simpler for digital terrorism (I get carried away).

Back to the ad, the men in the ad are wel attired, they have the basic german assistant government outfit (reinforced by a german source). The cameras being the head reinforces the idea of who they are working for and it is pretty simple about what their mission is. As for the background we can see the TV tower as symbol for Berlin where the parlament is seated.

The text says:

“with safety there is no freedom

the camera is watching every step”

Now, I went to one of my good friends business and asked him if he would agree with the cameras all over the city, he responded to me he would agree because it would perceive the idea that someone is watching and would prevent some minor crimes; on the other hand, his friend that was also with us, stated that he is not in favor of this; basically because he would feel followed and that it would prevent people from coming to the streets ( I know, awkward but honest answer).

What are the problems of allowing this type of government moves?, each time there will be a new way to keep an eye on the people, and the personal space will be shrinking a little bit every year and every new government. 

To allow something like this, means giving them more terrain to pick in our lives and configure an even stronger data base which at the end will end up being sold to the major companies and the audience will be targeted for marketing purposes and the initial reason to start all this which was security will just stand as an excuse to keep doing this type or atrocities.

Overall is interesting to see this type of dicussions within other countries to see that no matter the economic status of a country or society, there will be always someone to seek for absolute control.

Special thanks to my sources and may the best be…

As always the blogger of your hearts and souls,

Hugs and kisses,

Wally

I will see you tomorrow at 10 at IMK, I will see you at 22:45 at Postdamer Platz, we need to be at the Wollankstrasse train at 8:30

“There will always be something wrong, no matter what”

The only way I could start this is by dividing this blog in two. So, for our first part I will start talking about our visits and then finally I’ll close with the perceptions of IMK students and then a short summary.

Visits:

The visits were very interesting, by all means. Wall takes all the credit. Since the narrative of the presentation to the final conclusion it keeps the attention going.

Off course this doesn’t mean that the rest were not good, they were incredible, the thing is that there will be someone better (in my opinion). The sound branding presentation also opened my eyes and left me wanting to go again and again. These two visits take the best spots.

But what happened to the rest?

Nothing, they were good, McCann Erickson was good, very professional and the ambient very quiet, good job with the Lufthansa account, well centered. The N24, is a new broadcaster, yes, very friendly, but the presentation wasn’t that outstanding, I have to accept it, I was fighting with myself to not fall asleep, after the chat, walk around the building, see the digital studio and the reporters and that was it. Really? Something was missing, they are a TV broadcaster for god sakes shake us up Lets go on to Mercedes-Benz visit, well, I was personally very eager for this one (I mean come on!), the building was impressive, the whole museum/bar/dealership/offices was an eye catcher but (yes there is a but), the “girl” that took care of us, was lacking something, wanna guess? Knowledge! She knew the company, the history of the company, but we, as marketing and communication sensei (yes, I said sensei = master in some art, according to an FIU professor), we were eager to hear about their treaties and agreements with the competitors, like the Ferrari/Porsche/Bmw/Mercedes-Benz/Bugatti treaty no information. How do they really deal with the competition? How do they channel their life loyal customers to keep there? Why was there the need to open an A class division when they are all about luxury and comfort? Why buy the smart prototype and then commercialize it (and please don’t tell me this was there answer to Bmw-Mini acquisition). What happened to he brand? I mean yes, I loved the tour of the building, gave myself an eye banquet looking at the models, which she wasn’t that well informed of (how can you say a double intake system is a bolt compartment), anyway, thank you very much Mercedes-Benz for the visit.

Overall, we did learn something new in each visit and I truly know that not everybody has the luck and possibility to see what I have seen here.

Now, let me take a deep breath

IMK students; in my personal experience (because we all had different ones and I understand the different perspectives), I had an outstanding time with them. For starters I was lucky enough to have all my teammates females hard working, very nice girls that were always there waiting to see if I need it something or if they could help with anything and even they were very eager to learn different points of view from and exchange student. So, overall my teammates, hugs and kisses to all of them, they performed in an excellent way and thank you really.

As for the rest of IMK, you guys rock made incredible relations, we have gorgeous memories and thank you also FIU for this opportunity (god I sound like a beauty peagent winner).

Anyway, we also learned not to let ourselves get played by the fact the some of the students (none of my teammates) take advantage that we are here and literally don’t do anything, but this is all part of the experience.

Overall, this whole abroad exchange program was incredible, they should apply it the other way around, Berlin students go to Miami and I am telling you more or less how things will end. Jajajajajajajaja

But, to wrap it up, the whole mix, even though we had little time in comparison, the whole, sleep short times (that didn’t apply to me), run to catch a train, a bus or just waking up early, showed us a whole new perspective. Friday presentations, where we had 7 days to prepare, in which those 7 days turned in to 4, then 3 then 2 and that was it, plus our personal FIU presentations and personal projects, plus sight visiting and additionally to that find the time to party, it was a non-stop race against time (poor us jajajajajajajajaja).

The final result (and again I emphasis, my personal view), it was a tremendous tempo jejejejejejejeje.

As always,

The blogger of your hearts and souls,

Hugs and kisses,

Wally

what the .......... ????

Hallo, bonjour, ciao, olá, привет and hola. All of these mean the same thing and accompanied by the same hand gesture or body language, it doesn’t matter if we don’t know the language we would still be able to understand the message.

Have we ever felt like we made a mistake when we can simply not understand what other people say or so frustrated because we cant understand a menu?

Language represents a lot of barriers when we are foreign and non-talker and people who travel abroad encounter this a lot.

Does this means that depending on the number of languages there is a direct relation with the number of language barriers? Sometimes is assumed that when more than one language exists in a place, there must be multiple language barriers. Multilingual societies have traditions of its members learning more than one language, an adaptation which while not entirely removing barriers of understanding relies on the notion of impassable language barriers.

Now, language barriers also occur netween people that speak the same language, this is more of an cultural/slang/society/level/education status of the participants. we will have moments of misunderstanding because of cultural differences that assign different words to different things or assign different meaning to similar phrases.

For example, I arrived to Berlin, and to tell the taxi driver where I was going, it didn’t matter if my bodylanguage was amazing, he just couldn’t decode what I was saying and I couldn’t decode what he was saying to me. This is where I find it very useful to have a blackberry (smartphone) and I was able to pull out my email and show him the address where I needed to be dropped off.

Now, what happens when you are communicating with colleagues in your second language? I do not speak German and they do not speak Spanish. But, we talk English ! eventhen, our English isn’t perfect, we still need to communicate each other, and it has been very interesting how we have to put together a theatrical play (in a way) to show the intention of our message to each other. It is interesting to see how Germans, being the way they are, also use hands and gestures very freely when talking; when they are not known for being like that but they project a very serious distance keeping person.

So, to conclude, I had found it very interesting how to deal with kind of barriers, in a way I like that this difficulties happen because it is actually I way to learn about the host culture and that makes me a bit more culturally competent.

Hugs,

Wally

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GERMAN & MY OWN CULTURE

Let me start by saying that some people desire what other repel.

Cultural differences between Colombia (my home country), USA and Germany. Let’s point out the obvious and is that they are three different countries (sarcastic laugh). Basically lets start with food. Food is far healthier in Germany and in Colombia than in the U.S.

The way people interact with each other is different, here they have a big concern about personal space (no to get to close to them), although once you know them that barriers seems to get shorter by the second. Talking to my German colleagues from IMK, they were telling me about how they got to interact, they had spoken to us because we came to their school in an exchange program, but besides that it would have taken a bit more time to meet, let us take into account that this example doesn’t account for women, since women in almost every society is approached by men. Once you get to know them, they are all very nice and very eager to help out in whatever they can (finding directions, translating etc).

Some of the differences also include liquor and parties, here the music they normally listen is not very updated (although is still very good), while in Miami is all about the latest in music and in Colombia we have different music genres (salsa and merengue). Also, now we are talking about nightlife, the liquor you normally find is not very common (at least to what I was used to), even though it is not bad (still prefer other brands), the prices here are vey low. For a beer in a bar is 2.50 Euros’ (3,01 dollars) while in U.S. is at least 10 dollars and in Colombia is 10,000 pesos (5 dollars), and if you prefer to get your drinks at the market it is still cheaper.

Public transportation, well, here in Berlin the public transportation system is pretty good, you can buy a monthly card and you are entitled to use bus, subway or metro rail. Lets not forget, that here they don’t check if you have your card with you neither there is a machine that you need to stick a ticket or anything, in a way it makes it easy to use transport for free, but I was told that if you get caught, you may pay a juicy fare. Besides that, trains are good, taxis are not out of reach while in the states they are excessively expensive, which also reminds me, taxis here are luxury brands, while in the states is a special division of ford and in Colombia are very popular and cheap cars with no trunk on the back.

Talking about transportation,  in the U.S. to rent a car is not as easy as you would think, in Colombia is really a rip off, here in Germany it is the most simple and cheap thing to do, and comes in very handy when traveling to other cities or countries, road don’t have speed limit (most part of it) because people do respect the fast and slow lanes, they always keep their left and know that if you are going faster than they are they will get out of the way, that is amazing and well

Educated. Other thing that amazed me, is that the majority of the vehicles here are diesel engines, so they do think in the environment and in their pockets, diesel engines give better mileage for the gallon and contaminates less than gasoline.

Other kind of differences is women, not because they are more or less pretty but because here they are a bit more liberal about their bodies and in a way (and forgive me female readers) don’t intend to sell the idea that they are prude when they are not, I am not saying that they are easy (for the very creative minds), is just that they are more open to show their body and the common male mentality is not as perverted as it is in the Americas.

So these are some of the cultural differences I have found so far, here I will leave you with also another difference and is with one of my colleagues from IMK, you can see it very clearly.

Best of luck,

Hugs,

Wally

FIRST IMPRESSION OF ADVERTISING IN BERLIN

Airport (Tegel), taxi, mall, train (subway) and bus…

All of this had something in common, what is it?  It is not that they all have people, is the advertising!

Sometimes small, some medium, some big and other extra big!

Although I can’t understand what is posted at fullest, I make the effort at least to understand the product, which is where the pictures have helped me, and a lot.

So let’s move on with I can understand, the nice pretty (yes I have said pretty) part. They do catch attention, either because of the size or distribution or because they use a color that would catch your attention.

For example:

·      Apple:  They use every size, they are bold and it works.

·      Oakley: Use pictures posted on subways and stairs, they use Shaun White as their spokes person.

·      Volkswagen: Simply show the product and a description and that’s it.

Overall, it is a city where you find advertising everywhere you walk and you look. Lucky Strike (cigarrettes), also use big bold ads, showing their flavors.

Although, what I am wondering is, do they saturate the city with advertising because is cheap or because is ineffective.  Curious, isn’t it?

It is true that big/important cities have ads everywhere but why? Because everybody is rushing to do their own things that they need to be bombed with ads to let the message stick for a while until the audiences realizes it is there.

Also, and let’s be honest, being in a new city, almost everything is amazing (at least in my case), so, so far I will keep informed and we’ll be more critique next time.

Ok guys, that is it for now, Broadcasting from Berlin, with all my love (available),

Hugs and kisses,

Wally